Needles and Nails

sharing my love for decorating, designing, and building

DIY Kids Picnic Table from Pallet Wood

My kids LOVE to eat outside when it is warm out. For us, that’s any time it’s above 50 degrees. Haha! My husband and I built a large 8′ picnic table but the kids wanted their own. I found plans for a pallet picnic table online at www.ana-white.com. I just so happened to have a pallet behind our shed. It was from some decking we had delivered. This was officially my first pallet project but definitely not the last. This was the beginning of my LOVE for pallet creations 🙂

The kids loved their new picnic table and it got a lot of use. Last year we built a tree house for the kids, so I needed to make another. This time I took photos to show you just how easy it was to build.

For this project I used:

1 pallet
2- 2x4x8′ pressure treated boards (this is for the legs)
3″ wood screws
stain, paint, or water sealer

The first thing I did was demo the pallet. I used a reciprocating saw, hammer, and a pry bar. I cut through the nails on each side of the pallet first and then used the pry bar and hammer to remove the boards from the center 2×4.

Next, I marked and cut all my pieces. For the pressure treated 2×4’s, I started by cutting a 30 degree angle on the end and then measured 26″ and cut another 30 degree angle. I did that 4 times to get each of my legs. I cut 2 pallet 2×4’s to 40″ for the seat supports and the other pallet 2×4 into thirds, about 16.5″. I then cut 30 degree angles on each end of the 3- 16.5″ boards. These will go under the table top boards. I picked 5 of the best looking pallet boards for the top of the table and 2 for each seat.

Next, I attached the top boards to the supports. I planned to drill a hole in the top for an umbrella so I off centered the middle support, so my hole would be center and would not hit the 2×4.

After the table top was finished I laid it standing up on one of it’s ends. I laid one of the seat supports down first and then 2 of the legs on top of it. The 2 legs met at the middle of the center table top board. The seat support was in the middle of the legs. I made sure to make the distance from the bottom of the legs to the top of the seat support the same on both side of the table. Now, I secured the boards with wood screws.

After I did that same step to the other end I added another support between each of the seat supports. I forgot to include this board in the supply list. You could use a 2×4 but I just used an extra pallet board because it was already the right length.

Next, I stood the table back up right and attached the pallet wood seat tops. Now all the table needed was a little sanding and some paint, stain, or just water sealer, if you like the weathered gray look.

I went with just water sealer when I made this one but I think I am ready to have a little fun this summer painting it. There are so many fun things you can do with paint on a picnic table. Here are a few of my favorites.